the Jester
Legend
Poor Dragon
Orbius, as usual, leads our heroes to right where they need to go. A greater scrying followed by a locate creature sees our heroes through the chill air of Moil, its silent towers like exclamation points above the mists of the Void below. The Aqueous Tower pulls into view as they streak along, following the Eye’s direction, and soon they hover before it. Three bridges lead to it, each joining the tower at an open archway. Within, the dark tower is empty- no rooms, no floor, no ceiling except for the great dome far above.
But below them there is water.
“There’s some kind of key down there,” Orbius tells the group, gazing through his scrying sensor. (Thanks to his ultimate concentration, he can cast other spells and so forth without giving up his scrying efforts or other concentration-requiring effects.) I think we need to pass the dragon to get it.”
“Let’s go!” Thrush cries enthusiastically.
“Wait a sec,” Horbin says nervously. “We don’t just want to charge right into a dragon’s lair, do we? It’s probably well-prepared and full of traps or something. Plus, it’s underwater.”
“How come this water isn’t frozen?” Sybele asks.
“Salt,” Orbius answers. “It’s full of salt. Look, you can see deposits around and stuff. As to the dragon, it’s sleeping right now.”
“I don’t want to go down into that water even to ambush it,” Drelvin says. “It looks cold in there.”
“Maybe we can lure it out,” suggests Sybele.
“Perhaps an illusion of pickled humans could entice it. I could create that.” The Eye strokes his chins.
“Dragons are hard to fool,” Drelvin the Archer points out. “Perhaps if we got some real pickled humans, we could lace them with poison!” He grins.
“Nobody’s getting any pickled humans,” Horbin chides.
“We’ll just kill it. We can cluster around the entrance and whack it when it appears!” Angelfire enthuses.
“But how are we going to get it to come out after us? If we go poke it we probably won’t be able to get away fast enough, and a lot of our weapons won’t work so well.” Drelvin looks interested nonetheless.
“I’ll send something else to go poke it- maybe some elementals.” Orbius starts casting. Of course it should be elementals- to honor the L! Soon his water elementals have arrived, and they head down in the water and into a small network of underwater tunnels bored from the thick slabs of salt that have precipitated from the water, almost completely filling the lower third of the tower.
Soon, Orbius reports that the dragon is awake and is coming in their general direction.
Our heroes tense, manifesting a variety of powers, casting spells and activating equipment. A stranger would see people seem to blur and displace into new locations, multiple images spring up around others, new arms sprout from yet another. And then, as his multiple perceptual channels take in the dragon approaching, Orbius time stops, then dimension doors behind the dragon and seals off any possible retreat with a wall of force. Returning to the party he fires off a volley of seeker missiles. “That should get its attention!” the Eye exclaims to himself.
***
Sodiux the Brine Dragon was startled into wakefulness by a watery bug, but he knows that for anything to disturb him there must be someone here- in Moil. They must be after the key to the phantom flyer’s harness. There is no other answer.
So he destroys the elementals- bah, they’re not even worth eating, just flavorless water- and starts cautiously moving out of his lair towards the innards of the tower. Along the way- he takes his time- he feels the water pressure change subtly. Someone’s sealed off my lair! he thinks. But I can hear them without... so, they seek a confrontation!
Sodiux casts shield, haste and mirror image. A quintet of seeker missiles streaks in, spattering harmlessly off his wards, and Sodiux quirks an eyebrow.* Good taste in spells, he commends his soon-to-be victims.
Slowly- savoring their fear- he flexes his long tail and propels himself forward.
And things do not, at all, even a little bit, go the way Sodiux is accustomed to.
Just as he emerges, a greater dispelling from Horbin the Holy washes over him, dropping all his buffs in one fell swoop; and then Thrush is unleashing the horrendous flurry of death he’s known for, actually breaking the bones in one of its foreclaws!** Then Angel swoops in next to the huge face of the dragon and lops off its right ear!** Sodiux screams in worse pain than he’s felt in quite some time, rearing up- and Drelvin fires, sinking an arrow into its momentarily exposed heart.**
The corpse slowly settles in the water.
“I killed another dragon!” Drelvin exclaims.
***
A few hours later, they’ve cleaned out the lair and identified and divided the loot. Orbius receives a ring of silent spells and a helm of underwater action. Horbin receives a shield +4 and a breastplate worked from adamantine. Drelvin receives an amulet of natural armor +3 and a strange magical arm; should he lose one he’s ready to replace it.
“I wish it was a leg,” he mutters to himself.***
Thrush gets a pair of magic boots and a strange figurine of an ebony fly. Sybele herself receives some bracers of archery (Drelvin wears powerful bracers of armor and so declines them).
Angelfire receives a shield +4 and a curious mask, shaped like the green face that sent them here. Orbius identified it is a very powerful item called the Mask of the Devourer. Other than that, he couldn’t get much out of it.
She puts it on immediately.
”Oh yeah,” says the Mask.
“Angel?” asks Orbius cautiously. Londo is watching, his face an impassive mask, but within him he’s worried again.
“I’m here,” comes Angel’s voice.
“Can you take it off?”
”Don’t even try,” the Mask says in a warning tone. ”I’m far too powerful for you to trifle with! If you aren’t careful, I’ll devour you!”
“Dammit, Angel, why couldn’t you learn your lesson from the Deleter?” Horbin exclaims.
*Just like a regular magic missile, seeker missiles are thwarted by a simple shield spell.
**Crit!
***Drelvin ain’t kidding. He’s lost a leg in just about every big combat he’s taken part in. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but not by much- I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pc lose his leg as many times as Drelvin.
Next Time: Our heroes return to Cydra to attempt to save the L!
Orbius, as usual, leads our heroes to right where they need to go. A greater scrying followed by a locate creature sees our heroes through the chill air of Moil, its silent towers like exclamation points above the mists of the Void below. The Aqueous Tower pulls into view as they streak along, following the Eye’s direction, and soon they hover before it. Three bridges lead to it, each joining the tower at an open archway. Within, the dark tower is empty- no rooms, no floor, no ceiling except for the great dome far above.
But below them there is water.
“There’s some kind of key down there,” Orbius tells the group, gazing through his scrying sensor. (Thanks to his ultimate concentration, he can cast other spells and so forth without giving up his scrying efforts or other concentration-requiring effects.) I think we need to pass the dragon to get it.”
“Let’s go!” Thrush cries enthusiastically.
“Wait a sec,” Horbin says nervously. “We don’t just want to charge right into a dragon’s lair, do we? It’s probably well-prepared and full of traps or something. Plus, it’s underwater.”
“How come this water isn’t frozen?” Sybele asks.
“Salt,” Orbius answers. “It’s full of salt. Look, you can see deposits around and stuff. As to the dragon, it’s sleeping right now.”
“I don’t want to go down into that water even to ambush it,” Drelvin says. “It looks cold in there.”
“Maybe we can lure it out,” suggests Sybele.
“Perhaps an illusion of pickled humans could entice it. I could create that.” The Eye strokes his chins.
“Dragons are hard to fool,” Drelvin the Archer points out. “Perhaps if we got some real pickled humans, we could lace them with poison!” He grins.
“Nobody’s getting any pickled humans,” Horbin chides.
“We’ll just kill it. We can cluster around the entrance and whack it when it appears!” Angelfire enthuses.
“But how are we going to get it to come out after us? If we go poke it we probably won’t be able to get away fast enough, and a lot of our weapons won’t work so well.” Drelvin looks interested nonetheless.
“I’ll send something else to go poke it- maybe some elementals.” Orbius starts casting. Of course it should be elementals- to honor the L! Soon his water elementals have arrived, and they head down in the water and into a small network of underwater tunnels bored from the thick slabs of salt that have precipitated from the water, almost completely filling the lower third of the tower.
Soon, Orbius reports that the dragon is awake and is coming in their general direction.
Our heroes tense, manifesting a variety of powers, casting spells and activating equipment. A stranger would see people seem to blur and displace into new locations, multiple images spring up around others, new arms sprout from yet another. And then, as his multiple perceptual channels take in the dragon approaching, Orbius time stops, then dimension doors behind the dragon and seals off any possible retreat with a wall of force. Returning to the party he fires off a volley of seeker missiles. “That should get its attention!” the Eye exclaims to himself.
***
Sodiux the Brine Dragon was startled into wakefulness by a watery bug, but he knows that for anything to disturb him there must be someone here- in Moil. They must be after the key to the phantom flyer’s harness. There is no other answer.
So he destroys the elementals- bah, they’re not even worth eating, just flavorless water- and starts cautiously moving out of his lair towards the innards of the tower. Along the way- he takes his time- he feels the water pressure change subtly. Someone’s sealed off my lair! he thinks. But I can hear them without... so, they seek a confrontation!
Sodiux casts shield, haste and mirror image. A quintet of seeker missiles streaks in, spattering harmlessly off his wards, and Sodiux quirks an eyebrow.* Good taste in spells, he commends his soon-to-be victims.
Slowly- savoring their fear- he flexes his long tail and propels himself forward.
And things do not, at all, even a little bit, go the way Sodiux is accustomed to.
Just as he emerges, a greater dispelling from Horbin the Holy washes over him, dropping all his buffs in one fell swoop; and then Thrush is unleashing the horrendous flurry of death he’s known for, actually breaking the bones in one of its foreclaws!** Then Angel swoops in next to the huge face of the dragon and lops off its right ear!** Sodiux screams in worse pain than he’s felt in quite some time, rearing up- and Drelvin fires, sinking an arrow into its momentarily exposed heart.**
The corpse slowly settles in the water.
“I killed another dragon!” Drelvin exclaims.
***
A few hours later, they’ve cleaned out the lair and identified and divided the loot. Orbius receives a ring of silent spells and a helm of underwater action. Horbin receives a shield +4 and a breastplate worked from adamantine. Drelvin receives an amulet of natural armor +3 and a strange magical arm; should he lose one he’s ready to replace it.
“I wish it was a leg,” he mutters to himself.***
Thrush gets a pair of magic boots and a strange figurine of an ebony fly. Sybele herself receives some bracers of archery (Drelvin wears powerful bracers of armor and so declines them).
Angelfire receives a shield +4 and a curious mask, shaped like the green face that sent them here. Orbius identified it is a very powerful item called the Mask of the Devourer. Other than that, he couldn’t get much out of it.
She puts it on immediately.
”Oh yeah,” says the Mask.
“Angel?” asks Orbius cautiously. Londo is watching, his face an impassive mask, but within him he’s worried again.
“I’m here,” comes Angel’s voice.
“Can you take it off?”
”Don’t even try,” the Mask says in a warning tone. ”I’m far too powerful for you to trifle with! If you aren’t careful, I’ll devour you!”
“Dammit, Angel, why couldn’t you learn your lesson from the Deleter?” Horbin exclaims.
*Just like a regular magic missile, seeker missiles are thwarted by a simple shield spell.
**Crit!
***Drelvin ain’t kidding. He’s lost a leg in just about every big combat he’s taken part in. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but not by much- I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pc lose his leg as many times as Drelvin.
Next Time: Our heroes return to Cydra to attempt to save the L!
